Solve Financial Crisis Pursuing Bold National Space Mission

[Post Summary]

His left hand is under my head and right hand embraces me.
—Song of Solomon

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How was it World War II once and for all pulled the United States out of the Great Depression?

It was by way a national mission tasked to defeat violent political tyranny around the globe required the economy be geared up for achieving victory in war. In other words, the Great Depression was ended by sheer act of political will to win. Necessary material investment (previously resisted by Wall Street) was pursued with abandon following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The economic might required to sustain a war effort was built out. Once in place it did not go to waste upon war's end. Rather technological advances of every sort were adapted to the commercial economy through thoughtful political leadership (the interstate highway system and the space program most prominently come to mind).

Herein, too, lies solution to similarly dire economic threats the presently cascading financial breakdown crisis portends. A bold national mission is the very means by which a new financial system can be built while the old one — hopelessly bankrupt — is put to rest.

Back in January 2004 President Bush announced a commitment to extend America's presence in space with manned missions to the Moon by 2020 and then on to Mars using the Moon as a base for launching missions to the red planet. Pursing this sort of mission-oriented goal could spearhead innovations necessary for transforming the American (and global) economy from its present state of neglect to a modern marvel capable of generating wealth anew. Indeed, this approach offers the only means by which legitimate claims presently at risk of default (let alone those already defaulted) might have any hope of ever being honored at all. Likewise, the best hope for lending some measure of decency to President Bush's legacy might very well rest in pursuit of the grand vision he put forward five years ago.

Hilarious.

Seriously, though, a peaceful national mission advancing space exploration assures our nation's survival because productive investment it requires serves to center our collective cause on securing "the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" through actions most effective in stimulating the fruits of progress. Our present financial bankruptcy and severe economic vulnerability demands we aggressively meet the challenge of a decades-long physical investment deficit in ways that can be most greatly levered toward the end of progress most beneficial to all. This is what the Apollo Project accomplished, returning $10 in new wealth created in the commercial economy (by way of applying technological innovations realized in meeting the goal of putting a man on the moon) for every $1 invested in the program.

The cost of achieving any worthy goal is never a credible issue to Americans who understand how their nation's constitutional architecture provides the means for achieving missions serving the public good. Capitalizing productive investment is power the U.S. Treasury — charged through the will of Congress — uniquely possesses for the purpose of promoting the general Welfare of the People. This involves the concept of national banking first laid out by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to President George Washington. Anyone arguing on cost grounds against national mission-oriented investment sure to generate 10-1 returns plainly is ill-informed.

(This article was inspired by "A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet.")

—Tom Chechatka